Claims of Lebanese national’s abduction in Ghana false – Majority
The Majority in Parliament has denied the abduction and disappearance of a Lebanese businessman in Ghana.
Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa initially expressed concerns over Mahran Mustapha Baajour’s alleged disappearance in a statement.
The statement said “immediately after arriving at the Kotoka International Airport on 13th December, 2018, Mahran Mustapha Baajour and his two Ghanaian hosts who welcomed him at the airport were arrested at the precincts of the airport just when they were about departing in their Toyota salon vehicle with registration number GN 6126 – 15 by persons claiming to be operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).”
The Majority in a statement signed by a Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, John Ntim Fordjour, however, debunked these claims, saying credible checks at the National Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs “affirm beyond a doubt that no such person had arrived at the Kotoka International Airport.”
“It is abundantly clear that the claims of the Minority are false, unfounded and holds no truth. More so, failure on the part of the Ranking Member and the Minority to verify the facts with the relevant agencies prior to the release of the statement smacks of a deliberate attempt to cause disaffection for the image and reputation of Ghana as they have often sought to do,” portions of the statement added.
Mr. Ablakwa in response to the Majority’s claims, on Eyewitness News, however, insisted that government was only covering up the case.
Below is the statement from the Majority
MAJORITY PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE PALPABLY FALSE CLAIMS OF ABDUCTION OF LEBANESE NATIONAL MISCHIEVOUSLY MADE BY THE MINORITY
The attention of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament has been drawn to a press statement released by the Minority making rather outrageous allegations of the abduction of one Mahran Mustapha Baajour purported to be a Lebanese businessman of Palestinian origin at Kotoka International Airport, Accra, on December 13, 2018.
We wish to emphatically state that credible checks conducted at the National Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration affirm beyond a doubt that no such person had arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, contrary to the palpably false accounts given by the Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
It is abundantly clear that the claims of the Minority are false, unfounded and holds no truth.
More so, failure on the part of the Ranking Member and the Minority to verify the facts with the relevant agencies prior to the release of the statement, smacks of deliberate attempt to cause disaffection for the image and reputation of Ghana as they have often sought to do.
We therefore strongly condemn the rather mischievous and most unpatriotic falsehood fabricated by the Minority and accordingly urge the general public to disregard and treat with the contempt it deserves, the obnoxious attempt by the Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Minority, to smear the highly reputed image of our beloved country Ghana in the comity of nations.
Ghana is acclaimed in the international community as a country where human rights and the rule of law are creditably upheld and thus, any contemptible attempt by the Ranking Member and the Minority, to falsely portray our country otherwise, in pursuit of parochial and partisan interests should and must be condemned in no uncertain terms.
It is our understanding that the National Security shall accordingly issue a response in due course.
Signed
John Ntim Fordjour, MP
Member, Committee on Foreign Affairs
For and on behalf the Majority Caucus
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Credit: citinewsroom